Gee, Mr. Scalli
February 21, 2012 6:41 AM Subscribe
Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 may remember Racket Girls as a sleazy little Poverty Row crime drama featuring wooden lady-wrestler acting and inexplicable overdubbed audience shrieking. You may not be aware, however, that Racket Girls was one of three movies starring Timothy Farrell as the oily Umberto Scalli, and that Dance Hall Racket (1953) was written by, and costars, Lenny Bruce.
Dance Hall Racket is available in its entirety on the Internet Archive.
Dance Hall Racket is available in its entirety on the Internet Archive.
Racket Girls is a tough movie to get through, even with riffing.
posted by hyperizer at 7:04 AM on February 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by hyperizer at 7:04 AM on February 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
"Aaaaa." "Aaaaa." "Aaaaa."
posted by cog_nate at 7:08 AM on February 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by cog_nate at 7:08 AM on February 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
I think the guy who played Scalli also did the narration for "Glen or Glenda," didn't he? Racket Girls was produced by George Weiss, (the boisterous producer Ed Wood convinces to produce G or G, as dramatized in Ed Wood )
posted by ShutterBun at 8:43 AM on February 21, 2012
posted by ShutterBun at 8:43 AM on February 21, 2012
Thank you, Horace, for directing me to the YouTube account of MrXclio, wherein a hundred or so MST3K episodes, lovingly ripped from VHS, are uploaded.
posted by sixohsix at 9:05 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by sixohsix at 9:05 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
I think the guy who played Scalli also did the narration for "Glen or Glenda," didn't he?
Yep. Timothy Farrell. He was also in Ed Wood's "The Violent Years" and "Jail Bait." Believe it or not, the character he plays in "Racket Girl," Umberto Scalli, also appeared in an earlier film, "The Devil's Sleep," a film about pill pushing in a woman's health spa.
Interesting cat. While he was acting in these sorts of poverty row exploitation films, he was a professional bailiff -- which caused him no small amount of embarrassment when one of his films, "Paris After Midnight," was raided by vice cops (the films is about 2/3rds strip club scenes.)
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 9:38 AM on February 21, 2012
Yep. Timothy Farrell. He was also in Ed Wood's "The Violent Years" and "Jail Bait." Believe it or not, the character he plays in "Racket Girl," Umberto Scalli, also appeared in an earlier film, "The Devil's Sleep," a film about pill pushing in a woman's health spa.
Interesting cat. While he was acting in these sorts of poverty row exploitation films, he was a professional bailiff -- which caused him no small amount of embarrassment when one of his films, "Paris After Midnight," was raided by vice cops (the films is about 2/3rds strip club scenes.)
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 9:38 AM on February 21, 2012
Thank you, Horace, for directing me to the YouTube account of MrXclio,
That's a great collection he's uploaded. I had been looking for "Last of the Wild Horses" for quite a while. Looks like he got very active around the end of last year. Shame he's not able to upload them without 1 hour breaks (some others have apparently had their accounts upgraded to allow full episodes) but it sure beats the old 10 minute limit. I also appreciate that he cuts out all of the tunnel segments and planet logo bumpers. Completionists may disagree, but after 20+ years of viewing, I think we've all seen them enough times by now.
one of his films, "Paris After Midnight," was raided by vice cops (the films is about 2/3rds strip club scenes.)
Looking at George Weiss' filmography, it's amusing to see his career go from titillating/sensationalist titles, then into the "educational / documentary" phase. (nudity in films was not permitted, except for documentary & educational films, which gave the world more than its fair share of docs about nudist colonies and Swedish "marriage counseling" titles.
posted by ShutterBun at 6:08 PM on February 21, 2012
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posted by penduluum at 6:51 AM on February 21, 2012